The present research proposal contains a set of nine studies concerning the development of children's ability to infer negligence in other human beings. We will be searching for the development of children's common, everyday negligence judgments concerning common, everyday human behavior. Also investigated will be the relationship between children's ability to infer negligence and: (a) several other of their social thinking skills, and (b) their actual interpersonal behavior. A model of the inference of negligence is proposed which contains a number of variables that should be taken into account for a mature consideration: of possible negligence. In brief, the model holds that a person is judged negligent if he/she performs an action that has unintended, but forseeable, consequences. The focus of this research will center largely upon the child's ability to judge forseeability. The basic methodology that will be used throughout the present set of studies will be the presentation of stories (both cartoons and video tapes) depicting the actions of various story characters, and the consequences of those actions. Different stories will manipulate different variables derived from the proposed model. We will be asking children ov various ages to decide how much they blame the story characters for what occured, and why. Long-term objectives include: (a) the potential increase in our knowledte of children's ability to think about, and behave towards, others, and (b) applications to the juvenile justice system, which may be informed by the present research, part of which concerns children's ability to forsee the consequences of situations described to them.